As Bitcoin continues to gain mainstream adoption, billionaire and CEO of Ark Invest, Cathie Wood, in an intriguing projection, has predicted that El Salvador’s gross domestic profit (GDP) could increase tenfold over the next five years, which has since captured the attention of the global financial community.
Wood attributes this exceptional potential growth to the country’s unwavering commitment to integrating Bitcoin and artificial intelligence (AI) into its legal and regulatory structure.
El Salvador’s Adoption of Bitcoin and AI to Boost the Country’s Economy
It should be noted that this Central American country El Salvador has been steadily acquiring Bitcoin since the country adopted the digital asset as legal tender under the presidency of its current leader Nayib Bukele in 2021. In particular, the Bitcoin Law, enacted in 2021, provided the structure that made this possible .
President Bukele has been criticized for this choice by his political rivals, international organizations and economists. However, he never gave up on his goal of making his country a leader in Bitcoin adoption, even in the face of criticism.
With this decision, El Salvador became the first country in the world to accept BTC as legal tender. The objective behind the country’s action is to encourage more financial innovation, facilitate more efficient remittances and advance financial inclusion.
Currently, El Salvador’s BTC holdings number approximately 5,748 BTC, valued at $360 million at the coin’s current price. The country has since transferred a big piece of his assets into a cold wallet, which Bukele dubbed the country’s first piggy bank, marking the first time such a move had been made.
Given the country’s unwavering efforts to reclaim its community identity in the crypto space, Cathie BoisCEO of Ark Invest, is convinced that El Salvador’s GDP could increase tenfold by 2029. Wood believes this will happen as long as the nation sticks to Bukele’s agenda to adopt Bitcoin and AI. She further highlighted Bukele’s initiatives to transform El Salvador into an oasis for these technologies.
The CEO noted that since Bukele became president, El Salvador has legalized BTC, eliminated taxes on technological innovation and made significant investments, including a $500 million strategic alliance with the largest search engine in the world, Google. Wood revealed his projection after meeting with Bukele and Art Laffer to discuss potential investments in El Salvador. These include BTC and new capital markets, technology and innovation opportunities, AI, and Art Laffer’s favorite tax policy.
Treasury BTC Monitoring Website
Cathie Wood’s idea came a few weeks after El Salvador launched its BTC cash monitoring website. Bitcoin.gob.sv. Specifically, this proof of reserve website offers various tools to monitor the country’s BTC holdings using on-chain data.
In addition to the nation BTC holdings, the website displays real-time information about the crypto asset’s blockchain network, such as transaction fees, mining difficulty, hash rate, and halving, among others.
Featured image from YouTube, chart from Tradingview.com
